I’m so excited to get to tell you all about my dear friend, Brianna! She and I connected at the Realm Makers Writers Conference earlier this year and I’ve been so looking forward to sharing her post. Be sure to give her some love! 😀

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Hiya! This is my first time ever guest posting, so I need to start off with a huge thank you to Kara for being so lovely and asking me in the first place. Thank you as well, readers, for granting me your attention for a few moments.

I’ve only known Kara for about four months, but we’ve had some great conversations in that time. One of the more recent was about superheroes, particularly how even the most independent heroes are still part of teams. Netflix recently launched Defenders, a series that brought together notorious loners Jessica Jones and Matthew Murdock. The series also features Luke Cage and Danny Rand, loners in their own Netflix series, but famous partners in the comic source material.

The DC Television Universe, colloquially known as the ‘Arrowverse,’ has done an excellent job of uniting its heroes across four different television shows. Even the independent shows place the value of teamwork far above the good each hero may be capable of without support.

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. Other than a brief stint as a small child where I felt that being an FBI agent might be a suitable career choice, I’ve always felt called to writing. In general, writing is a pretty solo endeavor, particularly for writers of fiction. In 2014, I moved to Washington State to follow my family and begin writing full time. It was feast or famine, but I was writing. Over the following three years, I attended nine writing conferences, which were my first true exposure to writing community. My gains from these conferences varied greatly. At a few, I took copious notes and learned a great deal, but met no one and made no connections. At others, I made a few friends, took a lot more notes, but still didn’t come away with clear direction. In the fall of 2016, the feast or famine of freelance writing and editing finally reached the point where it wasn’t enough to keep me financially stable. I got an office job forty-five minutes from home, which made me financially stable, but absolutely trashed my writing productivity. I wrote, but usually only on weekends, and even then never as much as I wanted to. I knew I needed a catalyst, because I felt God’s call on my life to write stronger than ever.

Then, the equivalent of Nick Fury showing up on my doorstep to tell me about the Avengers Initiative happened.

Kim Vandel, a friend I’d made at a writing conference in 2015, introduced me to Ben Wolf, a staff member for Realm Makers. Both encouraged me to attend the Realm Makers conference. Kim stressed how much she thought I would find community there, and Ben handed me a coupon code from his magazine. After prayer, multiple obvious signs and blessings from God, and a few credit card purchases, I found myself in Reno, Nevada, surrounded by other speculative fiction authors. I even reconnected with a friend from a conference I’d attended in Texas back in 2015. I made new connections, I learned, I re-connected with people I hadn’t seen in years, and I came away encouraged and inspired. Realm Makers is where I met Kara. She made a comment regarding a conversation I’d just been having, and forty-five minutes later we realized that if we didn’t hustle, we would run out of time to get ready for the costume banquet that evening!

I wouldn’t necessarily say that being an author is exactly comparable to being Jessica Jones, Scott Lang, or Barry Allen. I don’t have super strength, a technologically advanced suit, or super speed. I do create worlds though, and just like having physical superpowers, there’s a lot I can do with that by myself. However, that’s nothing compared to what I can accomplish when I’m supported by a community of other powerful individuals who want to help each other succeed.

God gave everybody a gift that can be used to further his Kingdom. He also designed us to be in community with each other and with Him. Is it any wonder that we accomplish so much more when we’re in unity?

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As the daughter of missionaries, KARA SWANSON spent sixteen years of her young life in the jungles of Papua New Guinea. Able to relate with characters dropped suddenly into a unique new world, she quickly fell in love with the speculative genre and was soon penning stories herself. You can find out about her novels here. Kara received the Mount Hermon Most Promising Teen Writer Award in 2015. When she’s not creating new stories and placing characters in peril, she’s probably binge-watching Marvel movies, playing with her huskies, reading till two in the morning or experimenting with a dairy-free mocha Frappuccino (skills, I’m telling you).

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I spent my childhood in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, as the daughter of missionaries, where I grew a love for the written word and began penning my own stories at a young age. I have traditionally and independently published novels and short stories, as well as several magazine articles.